.W7 










■RESENTED 11V 



M 

iReprinted from the North American Review, January. 1891, by kind permission 
of the Editor, General, Lloyd Bryce.] 



CAN CANADA BE COERCED 

BY ERASTVS WIMAN. 



A condition of commercial belligerency exists along the entire 
northern border of the United States. The extent of this border- 
line, four thousand miles in length, and the fact that beyond it 
lies the greater half of the continent, impart to this condition of 
hostility an importance which makes the question of its abate- 
ment second to nothing else now before the American public. 
Along this unequalled line of demarcation, which runs athwart 
the continent some degrees to the south of its centre, the vast 
commerce of the United States breaks like a huge wave, and 
rolls back upon itself. Beyond it lies a region larger, richer, and 
more suspectible of development for the good of mankind than 
any other region on the earth's surface. It is far more attractive 
as a field for opportunity to the American people, far nearer, and 
likely to be more contributory to their profit and greatness, than 
is the continent of Africa, which England and Germany now carve 
in two for the purposes of trade. Its possibilities of commerce vastly 
exceed those of the distant southern nationalities to whom Mr. 
Blaine has beckoned, and whom Congress has called. Between 
the United States and these Southern countries not only distance 
intervenes, but difference in language, ignorance, slowness of 
development, limited by meagreness of wants ; the small range of 
articles to be exchanged affording a market only limited in extent, 
and striven for by the most vigorous competitors in the world, 
already intrenched in possession and in financial control of all the 
channels of trade. 

Compared with these conditions, those which prevail on the 
north reveal a region between which and the United States there 
is an absolute physical union of greater extent than elsewhere in 
the world joins two countries together. No barriers exist be- 
tween them except rivers and lakes, which, instead of being 
barriers dividing the people, should be bonds to unite them. In 
this region are found products more varied, more susceptible of 
wealth-producing forces, more needed by the United States, 
more available for development limits own people. and lively to be 



F7o33 



92 



THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 



more contributory to their greatness and progress, than the com- 
bined contributions possible to all the rest of the world. 

When the average American trader and manufacturer looks 
north, and from the most active commercial centres realizes that 
only a night's journey brings him up against a stone-wall, so far 
as the possibilities of trade are concerned, he views with im- 
patience the fiscal conditions of the continent. He knows full 
well that the physical conditions are all favorable to an extension 
of commerce in this direction as far as human life can exist. The 
fiscal conditions are those in which hostility to trade inheres. It 
is these which retard the growth of opportunity, confining him 
to a field in which excessive production and excessive competi- 
tion even now render his efforts well-nigh profitless. The con- 
tinent, it has been well said by Goldwin Smith, is "an economic 
whole " ; and as such it has been described by Emerson as " the 
last best gift of God to mankind." Yet by an utterly unnecessary 
dual fiscal system, which cuts it into two parts, less than one-half 
of its vast extent imparts its wealth to the world. It rests with 
the American people to say how long this shall remain. 

The trade of the United States should yield just as good a 
return from Manitoba as from Minnesota ; in Algoma as in 
Michigan. As much money should be made by Pennsylvania 
out of Ontario as out of Ohio — indeed, out of Ohio, Illinois, 
and Indiana, the province of Ontario being larger and richer 
than all these three combined. New England should blossom as 
a rose from cheapened food supplies, with the practical control 
of the possibilities of the vast mineral resources in the maritime 
provinces, whose natural wealth exceeds the natural wealth of 
New York and Pennsylvania combined, but which for want of a 
market, is silent, and dormant, and dead. Coal, which on the 
Atlantic as on the Pacific coast is found only within Canadian 
territory, is the needed force to make successful the coast-line 
cities in competition for foreign trade ; the product of the five 
thousand miles of coast-line fisheries, the best in the world, is the 
gift of God for man's sustenance, and should not be left in idle- 
ness and lost ; neither, in view of the treeless prairies of this 
country, should the wealth of timber, covering the vast areas of 
the northern half of the continent, be allowed to disappear by 
fire and rot, yearly diminishing its value to a greater extent than 
that which is cut and consumed. Indeed, a survey of the whole 
continent makes so apparent the utter folly of cutting it into two 
parts by two fiscal systems that any plan by which it could be 
commf-]vi<dK united |s worth j^pS 'the highest ambition of the 



IZ^fzoy 



CAN CANADA BE COERCED t gg 

greatest statesman : and toward this the merchants and manu- 
facturers, the publicist and the politician regardless of party, 
should instantly and persistently address themselves. 

It will be said, and with some truth, that the United States is 
in no respect to blame for the continued isolation of Canada from 
the marvellous progress which for the rest of the country has made 
^ the century now closing the most glorious in the history of the 
world. Whatever the causes of the retardation which "has pre- 
vailed on the northern half of the continent as compared with 
the southern, the example and the influences prevalent in 
the United States have all been in favor of the largest growth 
and the most rapid development. Indeed, it might with truth 
be said that there has always been a perfect readiness to receive 
Canada on terms of perfect equality into the union of common- 
wealths that has made the southern portion of the continent the 
wonder of the world, while Canada, occupying an equally great 
area, and with advantages equally potent, has' remained almost a 
sealed book, whose contents were unknown except to a few ardent 
souls, and even unsuspected by her own people equally with the 
people of Great Britain and the United States. 

But while there has been a perfect readiness for a union on 
one side of the border, there has been a bitter and almost unex- 
plainable hostility to it on the Canadian side. The material ad- 
vantages that would follow annexation have always been abun- 
dantly apparent, but these h»ve never seemed to be sufficiently 
valued to turn the scale against sentiment and prejudice. Although 
now and then, from some remote and non -progressive place, like 
Quebec in the east or Windsor in the west, a single voice is raised 
to favor political union, there is absolutely no reliable or marked 
sign favorable to that movement. These insignificant and alto- 
gether meaningless indications are caught up by the newspaper 
press of the United States, and made the most of as an expression 
of popular sentiment favorable to a political union, but there 
never was a greater mistake. While it may be that there is a 
growth of sentiment, especially among young men, favorable to 
annexation, and while deep down in the hearts of many a com- 
munity there is, perhaps, a fixed belief that this is the true solu- 
tion of the difficulties of the present, and the true destiny of the 
country for the future? there has never yet been, and is not likely 
for many years to be, an exhibition of this belief sufficiently 
practical in effect to make it a safe sign by which to judge the 
real Canadian sentiment. 

This conviction cannot be too strongly impressed upon 



94 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 

American writers and thinkers. Those who make a study of 
this question in Canada, and whose sources of information are 
of the most elaborate and comprehensive character, should be 
believed in such a case, before the occasional outburst of some 
sensational writer or the views of some disgruntled politician are 
accepted as the voice of the people. It should always be borne in 
mind that the whole body politic in Canada is permeated 
through and through with loyalty to the British throne, for 
which universal sentiment there is hardly cause for surprise. It 
must be remembered that Great Britain has treated Canada with 
the utmost liberality ; that the Canadians are a practically self- 
governing community ; and that, in addition to loans of British 
money in amounts second only to the vast credits given the 
Argentine Eepublic, which have recently brought such disaster in 
financial circles in London, no interference has been made, and 
nothing but kindness and generosity extended. To contemplate 
the cessation of a sentiment of loyalty to Great Britain, and 
to transfer the allegiance of a whole people to her great rival 
is simply to contemplate a condition of traitorism that no politi- 
cal party could for one instant afford to assume. There is not 
a single constituency in the whole of Canada to-day that could 
return to Parliament a member pledged to annexation. It is 
doubtful if in any one community, however small, an officer so 
insignificant as a poundmaster or constable could "*be elected on 
that ticket. How long it will take, therefore, to effect a change 
by which a majority of the people would favor a political union, 
those who know the the country well estimate by generations, and 
not by years. Unless, indeed, there should be some denial In- 
Great Britain of rights and privileges to which Canadians deemed 
themselves entitled, there can be no excuse for secession. 

Meanwhile it must always be bore in mind that it is only by 
the exercise of constitutional means that a political union between 
the two countries can be achieved. The United States will seek 
neither by force nor by purchase to deprive Great Britain of 
40 per cent, of her empire. Neither can Great Britain permit 
the sacrifice of a foot of her territory except by the practical 
consent of four-fifths of her people concerned. The consequences 
of the secession of this vast region to republicanism might well be 
contemplated with concern as to the effects on Great Britain itself, 
— upon institutions venerable by use for centuries, — while upon 
India, Australia, and other dependencies they might well be of a 
character most far-reaching and important. 

Therefore, in view of such conditions of sentiment in Canad:;. 



CAN CANADA BE COERCED .' 95 

with the certainty that there will be no justification for a change 
of fealty., and, further, that such action might prove more fatal 
to the influence of Great Britain in the world than almost any 
other event that could happen, it will be seen that the possibility 
of annexation to the United States is, to say the least, 
very remote. No sensible man, with a knowledge of all the 
conditions that prevail, would set about to accomplish a political 
union by direct means, and certainly no political party, in the 
hope of obtaining control of the constitutional means necessary to 
give it effect, would avow this as their object with any expectation 
of success within a generation. There is no stigma more severe than 
that of disloyalty to one's government, and no sentiment more diffi- 
cult to overcome than attachment to the institutions of one's 
country. The people of the United States, more than any other, 
are able to estimate the force of the sentiment of loy- 
alty, the inestimable value of its cultivation, and the danger, the 
loss, and the disgrace of a cecession from its influences. Hence to 
contemplate in Canada a movement towards throwing off an alle- 
giance of which most men are prouder than anything else under 
the sun — an allegiance most valued, most sacred, and up to this 
time most beneficial — is to consider a possibility that to 
those who understand the question best cannot arise. Cer- 
tainly no coercion by a denial of material advantage, no policy 
of retaliation or isolation, as a penalty for indulging in such a 
sentiment, can ever be expected to effect a chauge and so far revo- 
lutionize public sentiment as to make it a force in favor of disloyalty. 

What, therefore, under the circumstances is the best plan by 
which to abate the commercial belligerency that prevails along 
the northern border of the United States ? If the people in this 
country cannot conquer, cannot purchase, and cannot lure to a 
political alliance the people of Canada, can a commercial bargain 
be made with them by which free access can be had to their 
sources of enormous wealth, and to the profits of a trade that 
their development will create ? The answer is that nothing is 
easier of accomplishment than this commercial bargain. Political 
union is just now impossible, but a commerical union is quite 
within the early range of probabilities. The principle of 
reciprocity with nations on this continent, the favor toward 
which has pervaded this people like the light of the morning, is 
all that is necessary to apply, and, so far as trade and commerce 
are concerned, is all that a political alliance could bring about. 

In seeking to open up the commerce between the United States 
and southern nationalities, there has been no thought of a politi- 



96 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 

cal connection. There are few who ever dream that Mexico or 
Cuba will be assimilated into this union of commonwealths. 
Therefore, when desirous of extending trade to the north, why 
should a political union be a condition precedent, when political 
union is unnecessary, clearly impossible, and for the present 
seems to many most undesirable ? On this latter j:>oint there 
would be no justification for the United States to precipitate the 
affairs of half a continent into departments already overtaxed, 
and heap additional burdens upon legislative machinery already 
failing to perform one-half the demands upon it. Clearly, there- 
fore, if without material change in Canada, and without the 
slightest alteration in the political conditions in the United 
States, a commercial relation between the two countries can ob- 
literate the belligerency now existing, the attractiveness of the 
plan should be sufficient to win the support of the merchant and 
manufacturer, of the miners and shippers, of the railway men, 
and of all who want to broaden their opportunities, even should the 
politicians await the bidding of all these to put the plan into force. 

The question may be asked, What justification is there for 
the belief that the people of Canada are ready to break down 
the barriers of trade ? What ground is there for the assertion, for 
instance, that, while they are willing to remove these barriers, so 
far as the United States is concerned, they will keep them up 
against all foreign nations, Great Britain included ? How can 
the statement be justified that Canada is so intensely loyal that 
she will not for an instant contemplate a political alliance with 
the United States, as against her connection with Great Britain, 
yet will turn around and make a trade alliance with the rest of the 
continent that shuts out the manufacturers of Great Britain and 
admits those of the United States duty free ? It must be allowed 
that there is a seeming inconsistency in this position, and it must 
be admitted that there is little in the past or present attitude of 
the government of Canada to justify the expectation that this 
condition of reciprocity can be brought about between the two 
English-speaking nations that hold this continent in common. 
But it must always be borne in mind that in all self-governing 
communities, such as Canada preeminently is, there are two par- 
ties ; and generally, if the people are intelligent and self-reliant, 
the parties are not only pretty evenly divided, but with time and 
circumstances greatly change their views. 

It is most important to understand that in Canada these two 
parties, known as the Tory and Liberal parties, hold directly op- 
posite views regarding the relations with the United States ; that 



CAN CANADA BE COERCED ? 97 

the Tory party believe in a policy of isolation, and to them must 
be attributed the belligerency already referred to. The Liberals, 
on the other hand, have adopted, as the chief plank in their plat- 
form, the policy which will break down entirely the trade barriers 
that now exist between the two countries, and by unrestricted 
reciprocity, lay the basis for the settlement of every question that 
now disturbs the two peoples, and make possible a freedom in 
trade as complete as that which now exists between the States of 
the Union or the provinces of the Dominion. This is now the 
real difference between the two parties. The Tory party of 
Canada has ruled that country for the past fifteen years, and 
under the premiership of Sir John Macdonald, whom some look 
upon as a great statesman, but whom others regard as only a 
shrewd politician, the condition of commercial hostility towards 
the United States has been reached. From a Tory point of view, 
the conditions which now prevail between the two countries are 
no doubt justified ; and the expectation that, altogether independ- 
ent of the United States, a great nation can be erected in Canada 
to promote and add to the glory of the British flag is in the 
minds of a great many people in Canada, and is also a common 
thought in Great Britain. 

Whatever may have been the motive, or whatever may be 
the outcome, the policy of the Tory party has certainly been 
in the direction of isolation. To this must be attributed the 
harsh and antiquated interpretation of the fishery treaty — the 
refusals of hospitality to a few fishing-smacks in Canadian 
ports, while enjoying an unbounded hospitality for British and 
Canadian ships in every port of the United States. To this policy 
must be credited the denial of bonding privileges for a few quin- 
tals of fish, while enjoying unlimited bonding privileges from the 
United States, without which Canadian railroads would rapidly 
reach bankruptcy. The same idea prevails in the discrimination 
against United States vessels in the canals, the creation of which 
was only justified by the patronage of these craft. But above 
all these minor indications of hostility is the national policy 
specifically adopted by Canada, resulting in the tariff shutting 
out American products and manufactures to a degree that was 
only equalled by the drastic conditions of the McKinley Bill, 
subsequently enforced against Canadian products, which merely 
followed the example already set by the Canadian government 
itself. This catalogue of Tory achievements, supplemented by 
the guerilla railroad warfare which, owing to the enforcement of 
the United States inter-State regulations, threatens to ruin 



9S THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 

American railway investments, and which the Canadian govern- 
ment is accused of encouraging, makes the indictment complete. 

Such being the record of the Tory party so far as its relations 
to the United States are concerned, it now remains to he seen 
whether such a policy of hostility will receive the approbation of 
the majority of the Canadian people. This will be tested at the 
general Parliamentary election, which occurs every five years 
throughout the Dominion, and which is now due within eighteen 
months, though it may, by the action of the government, be pre- 
cipitated at an earlier period. Meanwhile the great Liberal party 
of Canada, in order to make the issue perfectly plain, have 
adopted a policy precisely opposite to that of the Tory party, es- 
pecially so far as it relates to the United States. They propose 
to place squarely before the people the sole question whether these 
relations shall be of the most intimate character, or whether the 
policy hitherto pursued shall be persisted in. For the first time 
in the history of the Dominion the issue is fairly presented in 
Canada as to what policy shall hereafter prevail in regard to her 
neighbor to the south. If the Tory party prevail, the future 
policy of the country will be that indicated by the past adminis- 
tration of affairs. If the Liberal party prevail, a new government 
will be formed, and a policy inaugurated as different as possible 
from that existing at the present moment. 

It is most important, at this juncture, that the results of a 
Liberal victory should be perfectly understood. In the first 
place, the Liberal party are unequivocally committed to the 
principle of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States, 
providing there is an expectation that such a proposition will be 
acceded to. Eeciprocity implies a perfect and unrestricted ex- 
change of every natural product and every manufactured article ; 
the effect of which would be that commerce shall be as unre- 
stricted along the whole four thousand miles of border-line as it 
is now between the States of the Union or the provinces of the 
Dominion. The consequences of this obliteration of the com- 
mercial barrier will be that the area of the trade of the United 
States could be doubled ; while, inasmuch as an enormous de- 
velopment would follow in Canada from the open market which 
would thus be afforded in this country, the volume of trade would 
increase in the same manner, with the same rapidity, and with 
the same profit as it increased with the opening of the Western 
States. It will rest largely with the Americans themselves to 
share in the profits of this development, as they already are largely 
in the individual possession of lands, timber limits, and mineral 



CAN CANADA BE COERCED ? 99 

locations in Canada. These they could further increase, for by 
the liberality of the laws they can possess themselves, by purchase, 
of any property that promises a large return under the changed 
circumstances. Free raw materials from all parts of the Domin- 
ion, greatly needed to cheapen manufactures for export, produced 
at a profit largely by Americans themselves, and by the necessary 
development affording them a market for American manufact- 
ures, is a result the value of which surely no one can question, 
as growing out of a reciprocal arrangement between the two coun- 
tries at no cost of political disturbance to either. 

But aside from the immediate and material advantages that 
would follow from a change of policy in Canada, there would be 
results far more significant. For instance, Canada, by the suc- 
cess of the Liberal party, will demand the right to be recognized 
in making treaties which concern her interests. This is rather a 
startling claim for a colony, but it will be enforced if the people so 
decide. Again, unrestricted reciprocity with the United States 
implies that American goods are not only to be admitted free of 
duty, but for the purposes of revenue, and to prevent Canada from 
being the back-door for smugglers into the United States, the duty 
on foreign goods will be maintained at the present rates, which 
are practically equal to those that prevail in the United States, 
and which can readily be made to conform to them. Thus there 
is proposed a discrimination in favor of American manufactures, 
which are to be admitted free, while British goods are practically 
prohibited from entering in competition by the exaction of a duty. 

Is it possible to conceive of a movement more significant in 
British North America than this attempt at fiscal freedom from 
British control ? If, as the first step towards independence, the 
Canadian people were asked to vote upon the proposition to pro- 
cure for them political freedom, no one act could be proposed 
which would be more significant in that direction than the one 
which the Liberal party now practically ask the Canadian people 
to acquiesce in. But it is not to favor independence or any other 
distinctive political movement that the question is put. It is 
simply to carry to its legitimate result the example already set by 
the Tory party when they inaugurated their national policy, the 
effect of which was to discriminate against English goods in favor 
of Canadian manufactures. It is only pushing this liberty to its 
legitimate result to propose that, in exchange for the near-by 
market of the United States for the manufactures and products 
of Canada, the Dominion shall offer an equally free admission to 
the products and manufactures of the United States. That the 



St 

Ml 



100 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 

people of Canada will consent to this arrangement there can be 
little doubt, especially since the agricultural section of the Mc- 
Kinley Bill has afforded an object-lesson of such stupendous im- 
port as to perfectly convince them that the commercial hostility 
heretofore indulged in can have but one result — that of complete 
isolation, loss, and disaster to the most important interests of 
the Dominion. 

But numerous other advantages would result to the United 
States from the election, by the people of Canada, of a govern- 
ent entirely friendly to this country. The fishery question, 
which, like Banquo's ghost, obtruded itself unbidden at periods 
most inopportune, could forever be settled by Americans having 
the freest access to every port and every privilege, thus coming 
into practical possession, for the purposes of trade, of fishing 
facilities and fishing wealth, both on the Atlantic and Pacific, and 
in the gulfs and bays, lakes and rivers, unequalled in value in all 
the world. The transportation problem, too, which now taxes the 
ingenuity of statesmen to adjust with perfoct fairness to all locali- 
ties can be completely settled. This can be done by the deter- 
mination of the Liberal government to enact clauses for the regula- 
tion of railways within the Dominion precisely similar to those 
which the Inter-State-Commerce law enforces in the United States. 
It is true that the competition of Canadian roads, by their short 
routes and splendid facilities, would continue to afford a means of 
communication between the New England States, on the one hand, 
and the Northwestern States on the other. But this competition 
can be regulated in conformity with the system which prevails 
south of the lakes ; more than which no one can demand. The 
coasting laws along the vast inland seas, the wrecking regulations, 
the extradition powers, the patent laws, the insurance-deposit 
rules, and numerous other international difficulties could all be 
adjusted in a spirit of amity by a Liberal government entirely 
friendly to the United States. This, under existing conditions, 
seems impossible. 

In view, therefore, of the far-reaching importance which at- 
taches to the impending general Parliamentary election in Can- 
ada, some action on the part of the United States would seem 
desirable in order that moral support should be afforded to the 
party whose whole aim is that of friendliness to this country. Up 
to this point the strongest argument which the Tory party is able 
to urge is that there is no disposition on the part of the United 
States towartTbetter relations, and that the outcome of all the 
agitation in favor of the obliteration of the barrier between the 



CAN CANADA BE COERCED t 101 

two countries is in the enactment of the McKinley Bill and the 
exaction of higher duties than ever before. But it is a mistake to 
interpret this as the sentiment of the commercial or manufactur- 
ing community of the United States ; on the contrary, the action 
of Congress incorporating in its last tariff an invitation to south- 
ern nationalities to reciprocal relations is an indication in a pre- 
cisely opposite direction. A resolution on the same lines towards 
reciprocity with Canada, similar to that which has been already 
adopted in favor of the southern nationalities, would completely 
remove the imputation that the United States will fail to respond 
to the election of a government entirely favorable to them. 

It seems impossible to deny such action, for no party or body 
of statesmen can justify the inconsistency of the free admission of 
sugar and coffee and hides, and other southern products, in ex- 
change for the manufactures of the United States, while denying 
an equally free admission to coal and timber and fish and copper, 
and other products of the North, for a like exchange of the pro- 
ducts of the skilled labor of this country. Therefore it seems 
eminently appropriate that Congress should early in the present 
session, in anticipation of the general election in Canada, pass the 
resolution which the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House 
of Representatives, after much deliberation, has recommended 
through its chairman, Mr. Hitt, and which has been substantially 
incorporated in the proposal of Mr. Sherman in the Senate. This 
resolution simply provides that whenever the government of the 
United States is certified that the government of Canada will ad- 
mit, free of duty, all the products and manufactures of the 
United States, the President shall appoint three commissioners to 
meet an equal number of commissioners appointed by the Domin- 
ion of Canada, to prepare a plan for the freest exchange of pro- 
ducts and manufactures, which plan is to be submitted for the 
approval of Congress before further action shall be taken. 

If as the result of the passage of this resolution the Liberal 
party can go to the people and offer them the possibility of unre- 
stricted intercourse with this country, and a government results 
whose whole attitude is that of friendliness and favor to this 
country, what greater act of legislation could be achieved than 
that which would contribute to the settlement of the numerous 
questions that now disturb the relations along the northern 
border, the result of which would be the complete obliteration, 
so far as trade and commerce are concerned, of the long barrier 
because of which, up to this time, so much belligerency exists. 

Erastus Wimak, 



THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 

NOW IS THE TIME TO SUBSCRIBE. 

The best indication of what this periodical may be expected to do for its readers 
during the coming year is what it accomplished during the past year. The record is 
one which has no parallel in periodical literature. 

In the announcement which accompanied the number of the Review for 

September, 1889, the editor made the following statement of the purpose with 

which he should conduct this periodical : 

"It shall continue to be, so far ai? my efforts can make it, a magazine of the 
times, in which topics of commanding interest in every field of human thought and 
action shall be discussed by representative writers, whose words and names carry 
authority with them. While the Review shall remain impartial on subjects upon 
which the mind of the world is divided— its aim being to present to its readers 
material to assist them in arriving at intelligent conclusions— its pages shall be open 
to the ablest advocates or exponents of both sides of all such questions. It shall 
thus continue to be a comprehensive reflex of the highest and broadest thought of 
the day, and of its most important activities in every direction." 

Notice how this promise has been fulfilled. The two most famous statesmen of the 
English-speaking world, Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Blaine, began the Tariff discussion 
in January. They were followed by Mr. R. Q. Mills, framer of the Mills Bill ; Sena- 
tor Morrill, framer of the Morrill Bill ; Mr. McKinley, framer of the McKinley Bill ; 
Mr. Breckinridge, Sir Richard Cartwright and others. Divorce has been discussed 
by Cardinal Gibbons, Mr. Gladstone, Bisaop Potter, Colonel Ingersoll, Senator Dolph, 
Justice Bradley, of the United States Supreme Court, and other well-known writers, 
including a number of distinguished women. Electric lighting was discussed by 
Mr. Edison, Mr. Westinghouse and Sir William Thomson. The great constitutional 
question of the Limitations of the Speakership has been fully discussed by the present 
Speaker, the Hon. T. B. Reed, and his pjedecessor in the Speaker's chair, the Hon. 
Jno. G. Carlisle, as well as by the famous X. M. t\, by the Clerk of the House of 
Commons, and Professor James Bryce. Mr. Parnell, Mr. Balfour and Mr. JohnMor- 
ley have discussed from different standpoints Mr. Balfour's Land Bill for Ireland. 
The question of strikes has been discussed on both sides by Henry George and Aus- 
tin Cor bin ; post-office and telegraph matters by Hon. Don M. Dickinson, cx-Post- 
master-General, and Norvin Green, President of the Western Union ; music and 
the drama by Walter Damrosch and Charles Wyndham. Literary topics have been 
treated by Ouida, Madame Adam, Marion Harland, George Parsons Lathrop, Mona 
Caird, Max O'Rell, Mrs. Campbell Praed, Gail Hamilton ; and scientific subjects by 
Dr. W. A. Hammond, Dr. H. C. McCook, Professor R. H. Thurston, General Nelson 
A. Miles and others. 

Among other features which illustrate the policy of the Review in endeavoring 
to secure the views of recognized authorities on current topics of moment may be 
mentioned the following contributions; "The Best Fields for Philanthropy," by 
Andrew Carnegie ; " The New Method of Voting," by State Senator Charles T. 
Saxton, the Governor of Massachusetts and the Governor of Connecticut ; " The 
Doctrine of State Rights," by Jefferson Davis; "British Capital and American 
Industries," by Erastus Wiman ; " Discipline in the Navy," by Admiral Porter ; 
"The Plea for Eight Hours," by Master-Workman Powderly ; " Socialism in Ger- 
many," by Oswald Ottendorf er ; " What iijhall we do with Silver ?" by the Hon. Roger 
Q. Mills ; "The Mississippi Floods," by General A. W. Greely, Chief of the Signal 
Bureau; " Why Cities are Badly Governed," by State Senator Fassett, Chairman of 
the Fassett Investigating Committee ; " Criminal Politics," by E. L. Godkin; " Rail- 
way Men in Politics," by the Hon. Chauncey M. Depew ; "Problems of 'Greater 
Britain,'" by Sir Charles W. Dilke and the Marquis of Lome, ex-Governor-General 
of Canada. Subscription price, $5.00 a year. The North American Review, 3 
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